Navitas (NVT)

Education services provider Navitas is not celebrating the exchange rate’s rise to parity. Its stock slumped to its lowest level this year of $3.86 on Wednesday. The $A’s strength against all the big currencies makes Australian education more expensive for overseas students and is likely to damage
Navitas
’s bottom line. Navitas is expanding overseas to diversify its income stream and has renewed an agreement with Canada-based Simon Fraser University to provide academic pathway programs to international students for another 10 years. Navitas has similar deals with universities in the US and Europe, but Australia still accounts for about 80 per cent of revenue. Further, the stock is trading on a one-year forward price-earnings multiple of close to 18 times compared with the 14.5 times average of its global peers. Stocks trading at a higher price-earnings have also lost favour with investors lately after a strong three months.